Festival of Seas: Blue Gala

It is with great pleasure to announce that tomorrow night the 10th annual Festival of Seas: Blue Gala Dinner fundraising event will be held at the ARC, Camana Bay. The Blue Gala dinner helps to raise funds for the Central Caribbean Marine Institute. The CCMI is located in our beloved Little Cayman. The Central Caribbean Marine Institute is Cayman’s only non-profit, and non-governmental organization dedicated to understanding and protecting the islands’ reefs and the life they support. All proceeds directly benefit the CCMI’s mission of protecting the coral reefs for the future. “Currently the work of CCMI shows that although coral cover declined significantly following the 1999 global coral bleaching event, reefs in Cayman recovered completely by 2012.” Our coral reefs are vital to the Cayman Islands, as they are imperative to our ecosystem. Not to mention, a national treasure which divers around the world come to see. Lets help protect our beautiful coral reefs!

The CCMI continues to work towards understanding what is causing the decline in the health of our reefs. In addition they seek to find ways to strengthen our coral reefs and make them more resilient than ever before. The goal of CCMI is to “establish the best protective strategies and promote realistic solutions that will reduce the major threats by humans so that reefs can weather the stresses caused by global warming and climate change. In addition, we aim to communicate any knowledge gained to both public and private entities in order to facilitate the changes that will reduce decline on reefs. In doing so, we aim to become “the” center of excellence for climate change and coral reef stress.”

Past donations and support have allowed the CCMI to do some incredible work within the Cayman Islands community, benefiting the future of our precious environment.

CCMI has:

· Purchased a 34ft Dive Boat through the direct pledge.
· Established and expanded the first coral nursery in the Cayman Islands which is working to improve the health of highly threatened staghorn corals.
· Given full residential scholarships to over 200 children from the public schools across the Cayman Islands.
· Launched a Young Environmental Leadership Course which trains Caymanian high school students in marine conservation and dive tourism.

Together our support can help raise awareness for the amazing initiatives and efforts carried out by the CCMI. Donations will help to fund their current and future projects which aim to protect our environment.
For more information about the incredible efforts of the CCMI please visit their website
At the moment seats are no longer available for sale for this event. However, for those who wish to support this great cause and event, donations can be made towards their silent auction and raffle. Silent Auction artwork and photography for this year’s event has been donated by Cathy Church, Ellen Cuylaerts, Guy Harvey and Dready.

Tomorrow night will be a celebration of Cayman’s Ocean Treasures to benefit The Central Caribbean Marine Institute.